Bloomfield Students Create Tribute To Slain Sandy Hook First-Grader

June 11, 2013|By STEVEN GOODE, sgoode@courant, The Hartford Courant

BLOOMFIELD — A group of friends at Carmen Arace Middle School have created what they hope will be a lasting tribute to a slain Sandy Hook first-grader and a legacy that future generations of students will carry on.

Ana's Sanctuary, named after Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, is a peaceful courtyard filled with bird feeders, flowers, shrubs, an emerging stalk of corn and a picnic table painted with 26 birds, one for each of the 20 students and six educators who were killed Dec. 14 in Newtown.

The windows that look out on the courtyard are now decorated with artists' renderings of some two dozen birds that inhabit the region and might drop in to the feeders filled with corn, sunflower seeds and suet.

Students are rewarded for good behavior with lunches in the courtyard, and it isn't unusual to see teachers at the picnic table grading papers.

"It has become the place everyone wants to be," said Ann Velazco, a climate specialist at the school.

But that wasn't always the case. As little as two months ago, the area was bereft of color and activity and most people walked by the courtyard without giving it a second glance.

That began to change when Velazco was looking for a project for Jose Capeles, an eighth-grade student who was going through some tough times and had briefly run away from home.

Velazco chose Jose to supervise the renovation of the courtyard with the help of four friends: Darion Alexander, Jovan Huff, DeAndree Jaunai and Marcus Savage.

The young men weeded, seeded, dug holes for plants and shrubs, put down lime on the grass, learned about birds, placed feeders around the courtyard and restocked them every other day.

They also went to teachers and staff for donations and were given plants, watering cans, clippers, rakes and other gardening tools. Envelopes containing donations for the project also started showing up on Velazco's desk.

"We told them we wanted to leave a great legacy because it's our last year," Darion said. "We wanted to create something that would be here for a while."

While working on the project, they also learned that Ana Grace's parents attended the school, and that several of her cousins attend the school now. So they decided to honor her by naming it Ana's Sanctuary.

On Tuesday evening, the group gathered at the school with some of Ana Grace's extended family members to dedicate the courtyard in her name. A bronze plaque dedicated to her memory will eventually adorn a brick wall in the courtyard.

Ana's aunt, Nayre Farrington, read from a letter from Ana's father, Jimmy Greene, thanking the school community for creating something that will allow his daughter's memory to live on.

Jose, who has developed an interest in agriculture as a result of the project and plans to attend the Harris AgriScience Center at Bloomfield High School in the fall, said it would be nice if each Sandy Hook victim could have a sanctuary named after them.

Velazco said she has already identified candidates for the next group of eighth-grade students who will have the privilege of taking care of Ana's Sanctuary and working on a second courtyard at the school next year.

Ana's cousin Parker Farrington is one of them.

Parker said the sanctuary is a good thing because even though it reminds him of the sadness and pain he felt when she died, "it also represents happiness because it's a memory of her being alive."